Some security and access control systems utilize biometric authentication protocols where a user's biometric data is compared to a set of authorized biometric data to selectively permit access to an access-controlled environment. Each human iris exhibits a pattern that varies from person to person, and it is generally accepted that each person possesses a unique iris pattern. Due to the uniqueness of the patterns and the difficulty in duplicating or forging iris patterns, iris recognition is generally recognized as providing a higher degree of security than other biometric authentication protocols such as fingerprint recognition.
Present approaches to iris recognition suffer from a variety of limitations, including limitations associated with ease of use and cost. Therefore, a need remains for further improvements in iris recognition devices and systems and methods for using the same.